Catherine wasn't as stunning as Marylin to begin with, and on top of that, she carried a past she could hardly bear to look back on.
She bit her lip, stood there in silence for a moment, then finally lifted her eyes to him again.
"Do you know about my past? Is it because you know what I've been through that you think I'm the kind of woman you can fool around with? Is that why you're saying these things to me?"
"And all the times you helped me before—was it just because you wanted something from me? My body?"
She had always been thin-skinned, so when she uttered that last part, her entire face flushed crimson.
It wasn't that Catherine wanted to think so badly of Bert; she simply couldn't bring herself to believe he had such feelings for her out of love. After Gerald, her attitude toward love—and toward men—had mostly turned bleak. If a relationship built over so many years could be abandoned so easily, then what about men she had barely known for a short while?
